Sunday, September 30, 2012

Bob Hope starts the show with a pretty adept impersonation of Milton Berle's act. Milton Berle follows with an impressive Bob Hope interpretation. Overall this is a great collection of footage from Berle's final series. It was produced by the people responsible for The Hollywood Palace (one of which was William Harbach - you can find an interview with him elsewhere on this site), recorded on the same stage with the same crew. The true creative mind behind this underrated program was Bill Dana. To my mind, this latter-day Berle program was far above Berle's much more famous Texaco Star Theater.

4 comments:

Dear KliphYour accurate Kliph-hanger re the last gasp of Uncle Miltie is much appreciated here and I'm sure in many Elsewheres. I was in San Francisco at the Fairmont performing when I got a call from Bill Harbach and Nick Vanoff telling me they were going to present a new Milton Berle Show. Not knowing Uncle Miltie was on the line I paused and said that I personally knew how well off and contented with their varied successes they were and added that I'd like to know what they were atoning for that demanded such an overwhelming sacrifice of time and sanity. At the same time they were sputtering that Milton was on the line, Milton's voice cooed "C'mon Bill. Think of it. You were a page outside my show in 6B Rock Center and here you'll be producing The Milton Berle Show. Such funmemories. Best, Bill Dana

banyxp 27Wonderful to hear Bill Dana remark on the 1966 Milton Berle Show. I have Berle material from all stages of his television career and I think he was never better than on THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE and the 1966 show. Another favorite if NBC's 1960-61 JACKPOT BOWLING starring Berle. Berle knew it was a real comedown hosting this 10:30 pm bowling game show, but he never acted like it and came out and did some of his sharpest monologues in front of a live audience at the Hollywood Star Lanes to an audience in bleachers with a live band tucked somewhere off camera. Fearless.

About Me

My long awaited book about comedy will be published by Grove Atlantic in 2015.
Longtime contributor to WFMU and CBC. Cited by Vanity Fair, GQ, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, The Onion, Salon, Slate, Atlantic Monthly, BoingBoing, Comedy Central, Dangerous Minds, WTF with Marc Maron, The New York Times, Vice etc.